The evenings are relatively comfortable, but the mornings get hot and sticky. By the time breakfast was over, I was sweaty and ready for something cooler. Cold shower, ocean, car AC. Anything.
Cristina had gotten some recommendations from the neighbor/caretaker, Carolina, for beaches that she liked that were not as touristy. We set out for one of them, Arco.
The road off the main highway was rougher than most. In fact, I immediately had that feeling of "hmm, I wonder if this is a 4-wheel drive only kinda road." Remember, the Toyota Rush is not 4x4. It's got decent ground clearance, though, so I carefully proceeded down the steep and treacherous minefield of dips and gullies. Once past that initial moonscape, the road was a bit more normal, if not a little marshy in a few places. The road ran parallel to the beach for a ways, and then abruptly ended at a couple of houses. Cristina asked the owner of the house, and he pointed out the "road" to the beach, about 100 meters back. The road looked pretty rough, and I wondered aloud if we could just park at the intersection and walk to the beach. But Ramon took the lead and plunged forward in his 4x4. I followed, and then at one muddy part, I didn't go fast enough and got stuck in the mud. I couldn't help but think of the road to the Airbnb, and Carolina living on that road. Of course she's going to recommend beaches that might be harder then the average vehicle to reach; look what road she lives on! My mind was racing through the options that might occur: having to call Enterprise for roadside assistance, or worse: fishtailing in the mud while trying to get out and hitting a tree, voiding the warranty due to negligence. I could see our smirky rental agent apologizing for the damage not being covered: "You should have never driven it down a muddy beach road, sir."
Ramon went into full-on tow truck mode and started assembling a means to pull me out of the mud. He used the strap from his hammock (which I privately had my doubts would hold). He coached me up and we gave it a go. It held, and he pulled me out. The next little bit of the road, before ending in a T of rocks, was also muddy, aaaaaaand I got stuck there too. The kids went to look for the caves that Carolina said this beach had, while we worked on getting out of this second mud hole. Ramon hooked me up again and we got through it. By this point, I just wanted to leave this beach. I don't like the beach anyway, and being in a desolate, rocky beach with no other people--and none of the comforts like guys selling pipa fria and ceviche AND getting stuck--was even worse. I told Cristina and Ramon to go look at the beach without me. I just stayed with the cars and fumed.
While they were gone, I collected big rocks and stuck them in strategic spots in the muddiest ruts, to give me more traction when we left, because we had to go through the same mud holes to leave this place. Again, I thought why didn't we just park at the road by the houses and walk?
Once everyone was back, we headed out. I made sure to go fast though the mud, and despite a little bit of uneasy fishtailing, I made it out without getting stuck again.
Obviously that was not the beach experience that anyone had wanted, even if it was a beautiful piece of coast. I suggested Hermosa beach. More popular, ceviche and pipa, and easy to get to. We picked up some groceries and headed to Hermosa. We saw a couple of iguanas, which was an instant bonus. Cristina got her pipa fria. Bella and I skipped rocks on the water. I tried to buy ceviche, but the lady had just sold her last serving.
Sunset was nearing, and we wanted a bit of the whale tail before calling it a day, so we headed to Ballena beach. Parked the cars for 2000 colones (worth it) and walked to the beach. It was looking like the afternoon rains were going to come, even though our time in Costa Rica had been anything but typical in terms of rain. Ramon and Cristina wanted to walk to the tail, but the rest of us just wanted to get in the water, so we dropped our stuff in the sand and went in, and R and C headed down the beach towards the tail. The water was great. Perfect temperature. Warm enough to keep you from getting chilled, but not so warm to be gross. And then it started raining, and being in the ocean was warmer and more comfortable than being out of the water. We watched for R and C to return, but the rain got heavier and heavier, and the sky was getting darker as dusk set in. Finally, we called it a day and headed back to the cars. We got as dry as we could in the pouring rain (the cars were under a bit of cover) and then decided we didn't need to wait for R and C; we could all fit in my car and R and C could just come home when they got back from the beach.
At the house we showered and got dressed for dinner. Anna was treating us to a farewell/thank you meal at a restaurant that she and Sofia had found on Trip Advisor. It was a beautiful restaurant, slightly upscale, with a limited but intriguing menu. A little pricier than our typical choices, and we hadn't told Alex and Bella that this was Anna's treat (and choice of restaurant). They complained about the prices and the menu until we finally got them to stop. It was a great dinner. The food was delicious (omg those chili fries!) I got the ginger tuna with mashed potatoes and broccoli (gotta eat seafood when you're at the beach). At one point the power went out (still raining), but we had fun with it and set the carafe of water on top of Alex's phone to make a light. When the power came back on we were a little disappointed.
The unpleasantness of getting stuck in the mud at Arco seemed like a distant memory, and this turned out to be one of the best beach days I can remember. Little did we know what was going to happen the next day...
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